Computers are becoming more and more user friendly. As more and more average folks have computers in their lives, these symptoms are no longer being tailored to only the computer savvy and scientists, they are more often being made so that anyone and everyone can easily use their system.

Part of this ease of use for computer systems is alert message. As the overwhelming majority of computer users are not computer professionals, operating systems and other software programs are being designed to tell users when something is amiss with their system or when some sort of action needs to be taken. More often than not, whatever the issue at hand is, it can quickly be taken care of with a couple of quick mouse clicks.

One of the things that more and more users are coming across is antivirus software alert warning popping up on their PC. These alerts stating that the PC isn’t properly protected, is already infected or in need of additional antivirus or antimalware protection can be frightening, but they need not be.

Is it legitimate?

While an antivirus software alert popping up on your PC certainly looks like the real deal, take a moment to scan and examine it. Look at the logos, and see if it is a product that you actually installed on your PC. If the alert is not from your antivirus program, but from another program with an unfamiliar name, you most likely have been infected by a type of malware known as a rogue antivirus program.

There are other things you should look for on these antivirus software alerts to see if they are genuine or not. Products that you haven’t installed will not be able to warn you of an infection on your PC. Also, existing products won’t tell you to download and pay for a completely different product to remove a threat.

If you still aren’t sure, take to the web. Google the name of the virus the alert claims you have and search for the name of the “antimalware” that issued the alert. The odds are good that if it is rogue antimalware, someone else has had the problem and has already posted about it.

What to do about them

Whatever you do, do not buy or accept the software. If you pay for it, you will still have the infection and the annoying popups, and you will have given the same people who infected your system a monetary reward for causing you grief.

You need to wipe these fake antivirus programs from your computer as soon as possible. As mentioned, someone else may have had this problem before, and plenty of sources online should be able to recommend the perfect antimalware to get rid of this particular parasite. Get rid of it as soon as possible because you can never really be sure what other real malware infections fake antivirus programs could be traveling with.